"Alright, let me know when you're ready to begin," Cynder called to the young ice dragon in the ring.

The dragon in question, Korindar, didn't respond, taking long, deep breaths as he stared out in front of him in the empty ring. Sweat dripped down his face, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed nervously. His lips moved as if talking to himself, and after a long sigh, Korindar turned to look at Cynder, standing outside the ring at the control panel. He opened his mouth, ready to speak, but closed it and nodded instead, before turning back to look directly in front of him.

"Okay, sealing the ring," Cynder announced, turning a dial on the control panel.

Immediately, a low humming began to emanate from the ring as the orange crystals dotted around it began to glow, a semi-transparent magic wall rising into the air. They were protective walls to keep the fight inside the ring, as a way to avoid any stray attacks, especially from the venomfangs, where it could harm any others watching or lined up ready to go. It was something Cynder had gotten fitted for practice sessions where shadowclaw or venomfang dummies were being used, and she always made sure that Vetar or herself was present during them. Especially her when it involved venomfangs, just in case there was any poisoning.

The nature of the dummies that these rings created meant that they were fake and could be called away, but the threat that they carried were still very much real, which meant in this case, venomfangs were still extremely lethal. Cynder usually put the recruits through shadowclaw training first, to get them used to everything before going up against venomfangs, although the transition was quick, as she knew a real battle among Spyro's forces would not be so kind.

And this was Korindar's first time fighting a venomfang.

"You got this, okay?" Cynder called, seeing Korindar's fear. "Just remember to be quick on your feet, avoid getting bitten, and go for the head."

"I'll try," Korindar replied, his voice extremely shaky.

"No. No try. This is life or death, Korindar. You will, you understand?"

"Understood. I will," Korindar said, much louder, whether to appear firm to Cynder or to convince himself that he'd be alright, she didn't know.

"Good. Now, one venomfang coming your way."

WIth that, Cynder summoned a venomfang in the ring. It began to materialise in the ring with a sinister green glow, and Korindar's fear and discomfort was way too evident. His forepaws shook, and he appeared to swallow many times, as if his throat was dry.

The materialisation didn't last long. It only took a couple seconds before a venomfang stood in front of the ice dragon, torso low to the ground and long fangs dripping with venom. It snarled, pulling its lips up to reveal glistening green gum.

Korindar moved to lower himself into a battle stance, but the venomfang was already moving. Immediately the ice dragon scrambled to leap off to the side, dodging the sharp claws and the venom-coated fangs that lunged at him. The venomfang turned with a snarl, releasing five rapidfire globs of venom at Korindar, who was quick to drop the ground and roll out of the way.

He grunted as he lifted himself back up, noticing the venomfang was already moving towards him, claws outstretched. It scratched him in the face twice, once over the forehead and once over his left eye, which he was lucky it was deep enough not to actually damage the eye itself.

The ice dragon recoiled, dodging another swing of the claws from the venomfang, before breathing a quick ice missile at the venomfang. It shot into the venomfang's cheek, causing it to stagger back with a growl, immediately pulling it out with a spurt of green blood.

With a roar, the venomfang turned and spat more venom at Korindar, who once more dodged, only narrowly missing the green globs. Korindar roared and lunged at the venomfang, tackling it to the ground, clawing at its face and neck, being careful of the gnashing jaws as the venomfang tried its best to bite him. The ice dragon managed to claw his way into the venomfang's head, exposing the skull inside the green flesh.

Before he could crack it open, the venomfang gave a mighty heave, throwing Korindar off him. Both dragons scrambled to their paws, Korindar glaring angrily at the venomfang, which replied with a savage hiss. Venom dripped from its fangs onto the ground, the sound of sizzling filling the air.

The venomfang leapt towards Korindar, who punched the dark dragon in the side of the face, knocking it to the ground with a thud. As it fell, it immediately counted with a glob of venom, causing Korindar to jump away from it, stopping him from delivering the final blow. Frustration overtook Korindar, as a growl escaped his throat. He grit his teeth as cold air billowed from his nostrils.

"Keep calm and focused, Korindar," Cynder warned.

Her warning appeared to go unheeded. The dark purple dragoness was now starting to fear for the dragon in the ring, noticing his frustration beginning to rise. She could see him lose concentration.

She tried again. "Korindar. Focus."

Still nothing.

He leapt at the venomfang, who thrust its head forward, slamming its bare skull into Korindar's forehead. The ice dragon fell to the ground with a groan, his head throbbing with pain. There was a lot of force behind the headbutt, and the bare skull didn't seem to help.

A fist to the face brought him more pain. He was suddenly aware of blood streaming from his nose. Fear suddenly started to overtake him as he stared up at the venomfang looming over him, and he froze, suddenly unable to fight back.

The venomfang thrust its head downwards, jaws open, venom dripping from the fangs, and bit down hard around the poor ice dragon's neck. Pain followed, and a scream tore from Korindar's jaws. It was a strange pain; it wasn't just any bite. It felt like something was being injected into him, and it didn't take him a second to realise he was being poisoned.

Cynder noticed too, and immediately put an end to the fight. The venomfang dematerialised, the vice-like bite around Korindar's throat disappearing, leaving behind large bloody wounds, rotting flesh surrounding the holes. The humming of the orange crystals ceased as Cynder turned the dial back to 'off', the wall of energy dissipating. Quickly, Cynder ran up to Korindar, who was wheezing heavily. "Help," he managed to choke, foam starting to froth around his mouth.

"I'm helping, just calm down," Cynder said quickly, before inserting each of her claws into the puncture wounds the venomfang's teeth had made, pushing more blood out and feeling the rotten flesh squish and contort under the pressure of her digits. "You're gonna be fine."

She called upon her poison element and felt the energy reverting back on itself, rushing back through Korindar's bloodstream and up her fingertips, into her body. When she was satisfied the poison was gone, she withdrew her claws, now dripping wet with thick blood.

Cynder turned behind her to the group of other soldiers waiting their turn to practice. "Norvus! Help me carry Korindar down from here! Now!" she ordered a fire dragon next in line, before turning to an electric dragon standing behind Norvus. "Veltron, go grab some red gems!"

With that, Veltron ran off to the gem stash in the corner of the room, while Norvus ran up onto the ring to assist Cynder in picking up Korindar and carrying him out, gently putting him back on the ground a couple metres from the ring.

"Meet me back in the ring, I want to make sure Korindar's okay," Cynder said, to which the fire dragon standing next to her nodded and made his way into the ring.

Veltron returned with a decent amount of red gems, before he proceeded to break them over Korindar's wounds. The colour of his flesh began to return to normal as the bloody holes in his neck closed up. His wheezing and irregular breathing slowed, becoming regular and less hoarse. After about a minute, he had calmed down, and was slowly returning to normal.

"Are you okay?" Cynder asked softly.

"I… I th-th-think so…" Korindar muttered, looking up at Cynder, uncertainty gleaming in his eyes.

"That's good. Rest for now and recover. Take it easy," the dark purple dragoness replied. "And just be thankful you're in a controlled environment where I could stop it and heal you immediately. In a real fight you would have died."

Korindar just nodded silently, the tone in the air dark and solemn. The ice dragon swallowed the lump in his throat, before taking a slow, deep breath. "I… I know," he mumbled, turning his eyes away from Cynder, almost with embarrassment.

"It's just a lesson to be much more careful and quick to kill these things before they can kill you. You're not the first one this has happened to. I'll give you a day off dark dragon training and then I'll see you back here the day after. One venomfang, just like today. I won't advance you until you're ready," Cynder explained.

"Understood. Thanks Cynder."

With that, Cynder left Korindar there, lying on the ground, making her way back to the ring to begin Norvus' session. He'd done this before, so he was ready for an upgrade in difficulty. "Alright Norvus, I'll give you three opponents this time round: two venomfangs and a shadowclaw. How does that sound to you?" she said.

"Good," Norvus replied, not even bothering to look at Cynder.

"Alright, sealing the ring, and then your enemies will be coming your way."

Norvus didn't answer. He was acutely aware of the orange crystals humming to life again as the protective wall went up. Three figures began to materialise in front of him, and the fire dragon's heart skipped a beat.

"Ancestors damn it, it doesn't get any less scarier and this is the fourth time I've done this…" he whispered to himself, swallowing the lump in his throat.

The fire dragon didn't wait for the dark dragons to start moving once the materialisation finished. Immediately he breathed out a large inferno, engulfing the three dragons as they hissed in pain. He stepped closer, not letting down on the inferno.

Once he was close enough, he sprung into action, lunging forward and propelling himself into the air. He spun around in mid-air, swinging his tailblade around and cutting off the head of one of the venomfangs. The head landed on the ground with a thud, the rest of the body following. Norvus followed suit as well, dropping to the floor as a glob of venom from the other venomfang shot over his head.

The fire dragon stood up, grabbing the corpse that lay in front of him and using it as a shield to block another venom missile that came his way. With a roar, he threw the venomfang corpse to the side, quickly taking a strong battle stance as he began to engulf himself in flames.

Norvus launched himself forward towards the venomfang and the shadowclaw that stood in front of him. He collided with the venomfang, but the shadowclaw disappeared, diving into its shadow. Norvus pinned the venomfang to the ground, raising his claws to thrust them into its forehead, before the shadowclaw leapt out of its shadow behind him and threw him off the venomfang.

A snarl rumbled from his throat. Norvus rolled as he fell sideways, using the momentum to get back up onto his feet. The shadowclaw did not hesitate to lunge at him, knocking him to the ground, his throat in the shadowclaw's jaws. Luckily, the shadowclaw didn't carry any poison coating around its fangs.

That was also a downside though, as the fight kept going.

Norvus punched the shadowclaw in the face twice, before heating up his body with a warm orange glow upon realising that didn't work. The shadowclaw shrieked and leapt off him, his blood staining its lips and fangs, smoke billowing from under its paws where it had been in contact with him to hold him down. Norvus tried to stand up again but was knocked back down by the venomfang, two large drops of venom hanging from the tips of its fangs, dangerously close to dripping onto his chest.

The fire dragon's back legs were free luckily, and he kicked out, knocking the venomfang off him. Norvus turned and breathed three large fireballs at the venomfang's face, scorching it, before he got slammed in the face by the shadowclaw. It raised its fist to punch him again but Norvus rolled to the side, sending the shadowclaw's fist slamming into the ground.

With a cough, Norvus spat out blood, before tackling the shadowclaw. The shadowclaw wobbled, throwing its weight around to try and toss Norvus off, but with a quick swing of his tailblade, Norvus cut across the shadowclaw's back leg, causing it to collapse.

Norvus was aware of the venomfang approaching in his peripheral vision, so moved as quick as he could to roll the shadowclaw over and thrust his claws into its chest, pulling out the crystal embedded in there. The shadowclaw went still almost immediately.

The fire dragon quickly stepped off the body, almost slipping from the black blood that stained his paw, before dropping to the ground as a glob of venom flew towards him. Norvus pushed himself up almost immediately, before engulfing himself in fire and performing another comet dash. He slammed at great speed into the venomfang, but it kept its composure, staggering backwards as opposed to just collapsing.

The brief moment the venomfang took to right itself was one second too long, as Norvus swung his tailblade around and once more separated the dark dragon's head from its body, flecks of green blood flying everywhere.

There was a second or two of silence, before the three corpses began to dematerialise and the energy wall around the ring dissipated. "Congratulations, Norvus. Go heal up and then get back to some more training," Cynder said. "Alright, Veltron. You're up next."

The training sessions went on throughout the rest of the day. Dusk arrived and everybody went home. Cynder and Vetar however went to a nearby restaurant to debrief over dinner. Vetar could tell Cynder was upset at something; she was a lot more down than she usually was. The dragoness never really smiled much, and she never laughed or joked around, so the sombre tone was normal, but she was almost… too sombre.

They ordered their food almost immediately, and Vetar was quick to ask what was wrong, jumping straight to the chase. "Hey Cynder, are you alright?" he asked. "You seem… bothered by something."

"Is it really that obvious?" Cynder sighed, staring straight into Vetar's eyes, her striking emerald gaze unsettling the fire dragon slightly. "I thought I was already too serious for anyone to be able to tell."

"While that's true, you just seem a lot more… distant and upset at the moment, if those are the right words for it. Now, what's wrong?"

Cynder sighed, finally averting her gaze from Vetar as she shook her head sadly. "I just… I don't know, I just feel hopeless right now. Like nothing we do is working," she explained.

"What do you mean? We're training the soldiers against the dark dragons frequently, and we're pushing them all to their limits. I think we're doing the very best we can to help prepare them and make them stronger, and we've got safety precautions in place, such as the protective wall around the rings and having you there for the venomfang training sessions."

"I know, I know. It just… It just doesn't feel like enough."

"How so?"

"Well… I mean we're doing all this preparation and stuff to get everyone familiar with the shadowclaws and venomfangs so they understand how to fight them, as well as to make themselves stronger, but… in the end these are just controlled environments. Simulations. No matter how real the risk is, I'm there to stop it and to immediately go up and heal the fighter should they get poisoned. That isn't going to happen in real life."

Cynder paused as she seemed to choke on her words. Her lips pursed and her face contorted, as if trying to hide emotion. She rested her paw on the table, before subconsciously curling it up into a tight fist. With a large, shaky breath, she slammed her fist on the table.

"It won't be enough," she growled through gritted teeth, her voice shaky and low. "All this preparation won't be enough to protect people, whether it be the soldiers fighting or the people the soldiers are trying to protect. People are still going to die."

Vetar sighed. He inhaled hesitantly, trying to formulate his words properly, before closing his mouth. He remained silent for a couple more seconds before he opened his mouth again, speaking slowly.

"As… unfortunate as it is, it's just… it's… normal… during this time, this war. We can't save everyone, but the efforts that we're making… it's to prepare people, to get them more skilled and able to protect themselves and others. Not everyone will make it but hopefully the death toll decreases."

The fire dragon knew immediately that he'd upset Cynder. She glared at him, her jaw dropped only slightly. The look was terrifying. Vetar thought she was about to breathe a glob of poison at him with how menacing her glare was.

"That's just it," Cynder snarled, speaking slowly and emphasising every consonant sound. "It shouldn't be normal for people to die. Death shouldn't be normal. People are losing their friends, their families, their lovers, their children. Taken by the most gruesome, brutal methods imaginable. They will never see them again. That should not be normal. The fact that you have the audacity to say that irks me."

Vetar swallowed. Cynder was scarier when she was quieter, as opposed to outright screaming. "I… You know what I mean, Cynder…" Vetar stammered.

She ignored him. "Yes, we are surrounded by death. Yes, we are losing people of all different species left, right and centre. Yes, people are dying almost every day, because I know how many slaves are up in Dark Peak. It's not just here where people are dying. But that doesn't mean that it should be normalised. It is not normal for so many people to die like this."

Cynder leaned forward over the table, invading Vetar's personal space. Her emerald eyes tore into his red eyes, and he was struggling to hold eye contact with her.

What Cynder said next made Vetar's heart skip a beat.

"How dare you say that after what I did to your family, in a dark time not too different from this one?"

Tears suddenly formed in his eyes. He realised she was right. The Dark War was nowhere near as bad as this one, but the idea of death being frequent was the same. He knew that had his family died now instead of back then, he would not have said what he just said.

Death was not normal, nor should it ever be, and for him to say that was not okay. He was not surprised it hurt her, considering she was in charge of so many lives. Looking at her however, there seemed to be an even deeper wound inside her, and he realised what that was by her next sentence.

"And how dare you say that what I used to do was normal?"

All the memories of the people she had killed flashed back into her mind. Blood and screams filled her brain, and the tears began to form. She hissed, leaning back and squeezing her eyes shut, placing her head in her paws, pressing her claws into her cranium.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Cynder," Vetar murmured. "I…"

"Don't," Cynder scowled. "Don't say a thing about it."

"Oh… okay," Vetar sighed, watching as Cynder rubbed her eyes with a sniffle, returning to her melancholy demeanour.

"Anyway, enough of that sappy apesh…"

"Spicy pork casserole and the venison ribs?"

Cynder and Vetar jumped as they suddenly realised that a cheetah was standing beside them, two large plates in his hands. The dark purple dragon cleared her throat awkwardly, wondering how much of their conversation the cheetah had heard.

"Um… venison ribs for me please," she murmured.

Silently, the cheetah placed their meals in front of them, and walked off. Cynder and Vetar just stared awkwardly at each other, before proceeding to eat in silence. They were almost finished eating when Vetar finally spoke up.

"I'm sorry by the way. Just wanted to say that," he murmured. "Doesn't feel right eating and then leaving without apologising."

"Thanks," Cynder replied through a mouthful of food. She swallowed before she added, "And uh… I'm sorry too. For you know, getting angry."

"It's fine, Cynder. It really is. I understand and what I said really wasn't alright. I think I needed a good scolding," Vetar replied. "But thanks for apologising either way."

They went into silence again. There wasn't much else to say. Cynder had said everything about today that she felt she needed to; those were her only concerns. And in dark times like this there really weren't any good things to converse about, or joke about. Other people might have a few, but for Cynder and Vetar, who were both very involved in the warfare, there was absolutely nothing good to think about. Even if there were, Cynder was not the joking type anymore.

They both finished eating, said their goodbyes and left to go home. The walk was long and silent, and Cynder tried her best not to think about the conversation earlier. She was glad that Vetar had apologised and she knew he realised he'd said the wrong thing, but what he said still bothered her.

Thinking about it, she had somewhat normalised death as well. She wasn't fazed much at all when someone died in front of her. Not even her parents. Sure she didn't know them, but ancestors, those were her parents. Was it bad that she didn't show emotion or grieve when people died? She figured so. She felt she was normalising it. Whether it was her lack of emotions or her sombre outlook on everything, death really didn't affect her the same way it did.

Death was normal to her. Ever since she was a child the concept had been drilled hard into her mind. She was forced to kill, make people die. Relish their screams, the taste of their blood, the sound of their bones cracking. She was used to it. Even after Spyro freed her, she still killed, even though they were just grublins. She was violent, aggressive, and the concept of tearing into something until it stopped moving didn't change. Now it was the same with the dark dragons. She still killed them.

Cynder was surrounded by death whether she liked it or not, and it defined the first twelve years of her life. She hated that it did. It wasn't right.

For the first time in several months she cried. She cried for all the lives she took, and all the lives she witnessed fade away. Why did she have to be so used to the concept of death? No one should be. She still cared about keeping people alive, but when they died, she just felt nothing. Seeing the streets strewn with corpses didn't faze her anymore.

It upset her that she was like this. After eight years, she'd become more used to a peaceful life and more accustomed to life, and so at the start of this new war, she wasn't surprised that she was so emotionally impacted. However the familiarity with death and horror obviously never left her, as all of a sudden she became emotionless and sombre once more.

Cynder forgot how much crying hurt. She wasn't even crying that hard, but her throat was already constricted, her eyes burned with the salty tears, and her heart ached. Her limbs trembled and her body heaved with every sob.

She cried herself to sleep, and woke up twice through the night due to nightmares, reliving past memories as the Terror of the Skies. She couldn't get back to sleep, so with a growl stood and made her way back to the barracks in the middle of the night, going for some training of her own to pass the time and to let out some frustration.

When she got there however, she saw Korindar lying on one of the rings, blood streaming from his body. She gasped, running to him to make sure he was okay. The ice dragon was covered in terrible wounds, half of which were miscoloured.

He was poisoned.

Cynder cursed, digging her claws quickly into Korindar's body, feeling the blood wash over her paws. She called on her poison element to try and get rid of all the venom in his body. She hoped that he wasn't too far gone, but she didn't know how long he had been lying there for, but his laboured breathing thankfully told her he was still alive.

There was so much; it was all in his body, eating away at him from the inside. She felt her mana reserves fading, and after about a minute and a half of trying to extract the venom, she could extract no longer.

And she didn't get it all.

"Am… Am I safe…? Did you g-g-get it?" Korindar choked.

"No. No I couldn't," Cynder breathed, her heart racing. "Why? What were you doing here?"

"I f-f-felt like a fool for f-f-failing earlier today, so t-t-tonight I wanted to… I wanted to practice on my own, w-w-with nobody else th-th-there. I broke in th-th-through one of the w-w-windows and c-c-covered it back up with ice to hide the evidence. Th-th-the front d-d-door was locked."

"Korindar, this is why I'm always here," Cynder explained, trying her best not to sound condescending and scolding. "Just in case someone gets poisoned. This stuff is lethal."

"I… I know. I-I-I'm s-s-sorry."

"The poison's been in here for too long. It's spread everywhere. I could only get some of it."

Korindar let out a pained yelp, breathing heavily. It quickly ended up sounding more like wheezing. His body contorted, as his flesh began to corrode. His paws folded in on themselves and quickly became disfigured. Another cry tore from his jaws, before he spat out blood. Tears streamed from his eyes.

"Shhhh. Shhhh you're alright," Cynder shushed.

"No. No, no, no I'm g-g-g-going to d-d-die. I'm going to d-d-die!" Korindar sobbed. "It was only a small amount injected into me through the bite! I dematerialised the venomfang before it could inject too much!"

"You may have only gained a few minutes longer to live from such little dosage. The venomfangs have very lethal poison, more lethal than my own."

"I'm sorry. I'm s-s-sorry! Don't let me go, please! P-p-p-please!" Korindar pleaded, spitting up blood on the last word.

"It's okay. I'll stay right here. The pain will only last for a couple more seconds."

Korindar tried to plead out again, but instead just let out a shaky wail as his body continued to deteriorate. It started to get faster and faster as the venom inside his bloodstream finally prevailed.

Seventeen agonisingly slow seconds passed before Korindar's screams and cries began to fade away. Four more seconds later, he was silent. Unmoving.

Cynder stared at the corpse, completely gobsmacked that this had just happened. But unlike earlier that day, she didn't cry. She couldn't. The tears wouldn't come.

"Cry. CRY, DAMN IT!" Cynder howled, turning and spitting venom at the ground beside her.

She growled, before punching the ground several times. For the next few hours she remained sitting on the ground, staring at the corpse, mentally tearing herself apart.

I'm a failure. Everything Is hopeless.

Aaaaand I'm back! I apologise for the wait, but writing took a while, and then I had to get it beta-read, and then I had to go back and edit a previous chapter which also took a while. On top of that, I took up art commissions so that kinda took more priority, and uni has started up again, so that's also taken more priority. On top of that I've also been writing a lot more music, and I've even began developing a completely original universe of mine (which Vhara actually also exists in; I managed to incorporate her into it as well after I got an anthro redesign commed for me).

It definitely feels good to be back, and I'll try not to leave you guys waiting for three months again. I missed posting and I missed writing. I'll try and write as much as I can but I do have a lot of other things on at once.

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Dragon of Mystery: Yup, that previous chapter got very dark lol. And yes, Forzen's still alive, and will play a much bigger part later on down the track, as will Tenedaris. Regarding Tenedaris/Volteer, he is not the electric guardian we know and love, which will also become much clearer later on. He was also originally meant to die with the other guardians, but I had ideas for Book 2 and 3 and decided to instead keep him alive, which I like better. There's much more in store for Forzen and Tenedaris.

Derick Lindsey: Ye, Tenedaris/Volteer really doesn't have it easy anymore. He's in a world of hell atm, especially considering the guardians, who are like brothers to him, are all dead, Ignitus killed by the Belt of Fire, and Terrador and Cyril by the very dragon he now works for. And yeah, I was quick with the upload with the last chapter haha; this one not so much XD. I'll try and be quicker next time.

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Anyway, time's up for this chapter. Hope you enjoyed, leave a review if you can because it really helps, and I'll see you next chapter! Bye!